Love and War
by quack-knits
Summary: Lance is a waterbender who lost his family to the Fire Nation; Keith is the son of a Fire Nation General who wants nothing more than to forget and disown what his name stands for. What will happen when the two of them meet? (Eventual M rating. Aka: gay sex)
1. Home and New Beginnings

Keith tapped his fingers against the breakfast table methodically. He stared at his father in a way that could be seen as a glare, if you looked close enough. General Kogane was having an early audience with Admiral Jo Shang of the northern fire fleet.

"General Kogane, I think it would be in your best interest to accompany me and my fleet in finding the Avatar…As we all know your reputation with the past Avatar, Fire Lord Ozai requested specially for your assistance in this endeavor." Shang said so in a matter of fact tone, staring holes into General Kogane's face.

The Kogane family name was highly regarded in the homeland of the Fire Nation. Keith's great grandfather fought against Avatar Roku, and ensured that he knew nothing of the war that would begin. Kogane was a catalyst in the war, and for that Keith despised his name and everything it stood for.

"Of course, Admiral Shang. Keith, and myself would be honored to once again serve Fire Lord Ozai in this war." Keith's fingers ceased tapping. His breath hitched and he shot his glare between his father and Admiral Shang. He knew that he was a valuable asset to his father, he was a prodigy firebender, working with two masters at once, but he would rather be a non-bending peasant, than a prodigy and weapon to be used against innocent children and families that the Fire Nation frequently 'sacrificed' in the name of war and 'peace'.

"Father, I know our position, but I will not-" Keith started,

"Silence! Know your place child and keep quiet," his father cut him off before Keith had time to oppose.

"Yes, Father. I'm sorry-" Keith bit his tongue and crossed his arms. His brows knotted and he diverted his glare towards the ground. The scars on his back reminded him of the consequences his father gave every time he spoke out of term during his audiences.

"Thank you for your support General, now if you would excuse us Keith, we need to talk about something in private."

* * *

"FUCK" Keith hissed, kicking his door shut hard, leaving a sizable dent in the metal before turning around.

His feet steamed as he stomped a trail in his room where he paced. He couldn't support this war this way.

How could his father volunteer his son for his own battle? How could he be born in a family who blindly followed their predecessors that lied to the Avatar?

His jaw clenched in anger. Keith took a deep breath in an attempt to calm himself, he closed his eyes. They opened a few seconds later, settling on the Fire Nation emblem that draped over his bed.

His heel dug dents into the ground as his he punched a ferocious flame at the symbol. It caught flame. Slowly deteriorating. Keith took deep breaths, staring at the flag as it died of it's own legacy.

He looked down at his hands, and closed them tightly, crescents developing in his palms.

He knew very well of what he had to do now.

* * *

"Okay. So I'm going to go in there and bend a blockade for the fish, and you two are going to come in after me with the net. All I need you to do is throw it in, I'll push the fish up, and you guys pull it out real fast. Can you handle that?" Pidge asked, frowning as they saw Lance, finger in his ear and not paying attention to anything they were saying at all.

Pidge sighed and stomped their foot slightly, a column of rock shot up from Lance's left foot, making him lose balance and fall backwards onto his ass.

"Would you please TRY to pay attention to me when we have important stuff to do?" Pidge said in an aggravated voice.

"Pidge, I heard you! Fish, blah blah, throw something, blah," defended Lance. He pushed himself up and dusted off his traditional water tribe clothes. "We've done this a million times, I think Hunk and I know how to go fishing by now. Hunk?" Lance nudged Hunk, who was paying no attention either, instead looking at the market.

"Huh?" mumbled Hunk, looking at the two of them confused.

"Seriously guys?", Pidge stomped at the ground and send two rows of rock, knocking both of them on their butts. "I get it that you guys hate fishing and all, but it's gotta be done. We'll do our fishing and be on our way."

Lance hissed and rubbed his butt and sighed and mumbled, "It would be easier if I could BEND the fish out of the water…"

Pidge looked down at Lance and frowned slightly, "Lance I'm sorry, I know it's hard for you right now since you lost your bending, but we just have to deal with it until we can get to the North Pole water tribe and get you healed. For now, we just have to suck it up and do the best that we can."

Pidge has adopted the role of peacekeeper while Shiro was ahead of them. He had important battle plans with Earth King to attend to, and that meant no one to keep Lance in check and stopping him from doing, well- Lance things.

"Can't we just buy some food from the market place? I don't mean to knock the whole fish thing Pidge, but it's getting so old and I don't think I can handle any more scales going down." Hunk complained.

"No, we have to save our cash for whatever it takes to heal Lance."

Lance furrows his brows and stares down at his hands. His palms were soft, but strong, with long slender fingers. Waterbending hands. He was good with swords, sure. He can handle his own when shit hits the pan and he needs to beat some Fire Nation scum with a whale-tooth sword, but not being able to bend has him feeling...vulnerable.

The gang had a run in with some questionable mudbenders in a swamp a few weeks ago. Turned out they weren't only mudbenders. One of the crew got pissed by Lance flirting with one of the village girls, and he bloodbended Lance. It was terrible. No one was around. He doesn't know what that man did, but whatever it was locked up his waterbending. He couldn't even make a splash, that's why they had to head North. Lance needed the specialized waterhealing that they had there.

"Let's just get this over with so we can get out of here. Please." Lance picked up the net, the other two exchanged sympathetic looks.


	2. Oh Look, An Inn

"THE ONLY THING I'M GOING TO BE WAVING IS YOUR DECAPITATED HEAD ON A STICK IN FRONT OF YOUR WEEPING MOTHE-EUGH" the guard is cut off by a sharp dagger knocking his sword out of his hand. The Blue Spirit stares at the guard, silently challenging his statement.

The guard gulps and waves a white flag, nervously chuckling in defeat. The Blue Spirit stands, staring down at the guard. He gives one kick to his jaw before turning to leave to make sure that he wouldn't be able to follow him.

The Blue Spirit was an enemy of the Fire Nation, fighting against their side in the war, and instead, fighting for the weak villagers who couldn't protect themselves against corrupt soldiers. He wore all black except a blue mask with white facial accents, fangs coming out of the mouth, and horns coming from the top of the mask. The only thing that clued people in that the Blue Spirit, was indeed human, were the slits of skin shown from the fingerless gloves that he wore.

Now the Blue Spirit had more than simple corruption to tackle. He needed to end this war for once and for all, no matter the consequences.

* * *

"UGGHHH" Lance laid with his head hanging upside down off the side of the ship. "How much longer until we actually get there? Y'know, to the place we've been heading to for the SEVEN days without any progress whatsoever?" Lance gestures a lot while talking, finally looking up towards Pidge who was bent over a map of the ocean they were sailing through.

"Yeah-BLEGH...I second that question...it would be really-nice if we could get out of rocky flowy puke boat!" babbles Hunk, who was practically falling off the edge of the boat with a green face.

"Actually, it might not be that much further. There should be land about an hour or two. I suggest we just sit back and relax till then. We have a long way to walk until we make it to the northern water tribe." explained Pidge.

Lance looked out in front of them into the horizon. He wished he was there right now, but this was closer than they had been for weeks and he needed to be patient. Yeah-right, Lance and patient. "Is there any way we could speed this up, Pidge? Can't you...I don't know. Do some major rock pushing and get us out of here?" He looked at Pidge pleadingly, pouting comically and crossing his hands in mock prayer.

"No Lance. This isn't some lake, the rock is miles below us."

"Hmph…" Lance crossed his arms and sighed, "Fine. You're right. I'll just feel better once we get to land." This was an odd statement from Lance, the esteemed waterbender, but the longer Lance was near water, the more helpless he felt.

* * *

It was raining hard and Keith did everything he could in order to not fall face first into the mud. He had run away from his home. Being on foot and boat for twelve days straight with only six hour rest periods would have a normal person crawling home, but Keith was just beginning his journey.

There was light in the distance, possibly an inn or a village

* * *

"Thank quiznak and everything that is holy." Hunk pushed through the door of an Earth Kingdom inn northwest of Ba Sing Se.

The three of them clamber into the inn, looking a seasick mess. Lance looks over to see a fairly pretty girl in Earth Kingdom robes at the counter. He smirks back at Pidge and Hunk, "Alright guys, time for you to see how we do it...water tribe style."

"Oh no." Pidge just sighs and sits down with Hunk at a table, while Lance cracks his knuckles, turning sharply and half-strides, half-dances to the girl at the counter.

"Hey," Lance plops his elbow down on the counter and stares at the girl with a lidded gaze, "nice inn you got here, it's cute, much like it's keeper." His eyebrows waggle, causing the girl to stare at him in disbelief of him forwardness. Lance slips a finger in the loop of his whale-tooth dagger and pull it up to spin it around in a circle around his finger. "So...what's your name? Mine's Lance."

"My name is Kushala. Welcome to our inn. My husband and I would be-"starts Kushala, but Lance knocks himself in the forehead and face contorts into a dejected pout.

"Oh. Husband. That's nice." Lance sighs and shoves his whale-tooth dagger back into it's holster, bringing out a few gold pieces. "We'll take those two rooms then." Lance sighed and crossed his arms, looking back at Pidge and Hunk, who were apparently completely amused by his failed courting.

The door to the inn suddenly slammed open, the sound of heavy rain penetrating the calm of the inn. Lance turned around to see a man in all black, soaked hood to toe, standing in the door. The man takes a few steps inside, soaking wet from the pouring rain. He shuts the door behind him staggers to the desk, walking a foot in front of Lance.

"I'd like one room. And I need some supplies." The voice was adamant and authoritative, but Lance could hear in the voice that he was young.

"Oh sir...I am sorry, but these three travelers just rented the rest of our rooms, Kushala replied, smiling apologetically.  
The mysterious man twitches and turns abruptly to look at Lance. Lance could somewhat make out his face under the shade of the black hood covering his head and face, but he could see a soft nose, sharp eyes, dark eyebrows, and pale skin. The strangers eyes seemed to not even be black, but a dark indigo color. The man studied Lances face also for a moment before turning to look back towards Pidge and Hunk.

"Do you _really_ need two rooms?" asked the man in an annoyed voice. He looked back at Lance and quirked his eyebrows with his question. This guy was a total joke, of course they needed TWO rooms. Who was he to even ask that question?

"Uhm...I'm sorry but I'm not sure if you see that there happens to be three of us and one of you, so yeah. We do need three rooms Mr. Cranky Rain Man." Lance retorts, crossing his arms and straightening his posture, peering down at Mr. Cranky Rain Man. Which most definitely isn't his name...probably.

"Okay," the man clasped his hands together and took a deep breath before taking his hood off and looking up at Lance, "Listen, I just need a room. I've been traveling nonstop for twelve days on my feet, and in the rain for the past ten hours. I'm sure I can compensate you for the inconvenience." The man rambled, but Lance zoned out at 'I need a room'. This guy was beautiful. His hair was jet black and sticking to his face that was pale white and was dotted with raindrops. His eyes were sharp, but large, just tired from travel. They shimmered a brighter indigo now that they weren't hidden by his hood. Lance realized that he must have had googly eyes plastered on his face because the 'Rain Man' was staring right back at him with his arms crossed. Lance straightened up, crossing his arms right back at him, leaning forward in challenge.

"Listen buddy, we've been on the road _far_ longer than you have, _AND_ we got here first. I already paid for the rooms, so you can get your quiznak to another inn." Lance accents 'quiznak' by poking the man in the chest with his finger and glared at him.

"Hey Pidge?"

"Yeah Hunk?"

"I'm not the only one seeing smoke between both of them, am I?"

"Nope. I have a feeling this is going to be very interesting..."


End file.
